ASO ROCK WATCH: On Nigeria’s ‘leadership elephantiasis’, and one other talking point

Last week, President Bola Tinubu decried Nigeria’s protracted leadership challenge.

We tracked two other stories from the presidency for your reading pleasure.

1. Nigeria’s ‘leadership elephantiasis’

On March 27, Tinubu asserted that Nigeria, the perceived giant of Africa, had suffered what he termed ‘leadership elephantiasis’ for many years.

The President said this when he received a delegation from the United States Congress led by Senator Cory Booker at the State House in Abuja.

“Nigeria, as the giant of Africa, had suffered leadership elephantiasis years back. I am determined to change that,” he said, among others.

Tinubu’s submission is an affirmation of the long years of leadership failure which have plunged Nigeria into a crisis of underdevelopment.

Many would describe it as a clever strategy to market his administration before the international community, while re-stating his personal resolve to govern differently from his predecessors, who had been alleged to drag Nigeria to the status of a near failed state.

READ ALSO:ASO ROCK WATCH: That travel ban on appointees. Two other talking points

Indeed, his statement serves to rekindle hope in an environment where everyday living has come to be defined by one form of hardship or the other. Will Tinubu’s ray of hope endure? Only time will tell.

Two other talking points

2. Keeping Nigeria’s schools safe

Tinubu, on March 24, assured Nigerians that his administration would ensure that schools, across the country, were safer and secure for teaching and learning.

Speaking on the release of the kidnapped 287 schoolchildren and teachers in Kaduna State, and the 15 pupils of a Tsangaya school in Sokoto State, he said:
“I once again assure Nigerians that my administration is deploying detailed strategies to ensure that our schools remain safe sanctuaries of learning, not lairs for wanton abductions.”

Though well intentioned, the President’s assurances may amount to nothing, if the nation’s security architecture does not significantly improve.

So, it is left to be seen how Tinubu’s promise of “deploying detailed strategies” will close the seeming gaps and enhance the level of intelligence gathering by the security agencies.

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